Right now the Aussie wine industry feels like a party where the band’s great, the room’s packed… and yet somehow the smallest growers and makers in the room are left picking up the bar tab.
There’s too much wine (and it’s really hard to tell what’s good), wallets and purse-strings are tightening, and between the people who grow or make the wine and you there’s a supply chain where everyone clips the ticket—distributors, brokers, retailers, platforms, freight, rebates, “promotional support,” you name it.
By the time a bottle reaches you, the grower and maker—the people who actually grow and make the thing—are left squinting at single-digit margins and wondering why they bothered.
That’s why I’ve taken THE Wine Revival and made it DAVE’S Wine Revival. If I’m asking you to back a different way of doing wine, you should see exactly whose neck is on the line.
Mine, for one. Hi, I’m Dave - and I care.
I care about the wine I’ve made. Really care. Love it. Look after it. Remember every memory and every decision associated with it.
I care about you getting the best wine at prices you can afford. Life's too short to drink bad wine.
And I care about a fair go for the people who make the wine. I mean the ones who really make it. Not the directors of the Big Wine multi-nationals and others (the Vine Vampires):
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bleeding the industry dry;
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turning out the same bulk wine under different labels to give you the illusion of choice; all while
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screwing down the people who dedicate their lives to making the wine.
I care about:
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the people with their hands in the dirt tilling their land;
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the people selecting grapes from plots and vintages because they know that Sally’s vines had a cracker shiraz 2 years ago and they’d love to mix it with some merlot grown on this bit of soil;
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the people who clean the vats out (that’s me in the pic, below, by the way); and
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the ones who stay up at night thinking about the last addition or change to finish that perfect blend - for you.
These are the people who spend months and months each ear tied to the vineyard or the winery, and live on seasonal and often unsustainable income levels. They’re the ones who do it for the love it or because their family has done it for generations and it’s part of their heritage and legacy. The ones who will do it as long as they can - but are being crushed by the Big Wine Vampires from all angles.
Image above - Me mucking our tanks.
What Big Wine gets wrong (for little makers)
Small producers aren’t just competing with marketing budgets; they’re competing with structures:
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Middlemen stack-ups. Each hop adds cost and demands discounting. Promotions get “funded” by the people least able to fund them.
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Shelf space as a pay-to-play game. If you don’t bankroll the promo calendar, your wine gathers dust.
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Cashflow choke points. 60–90 day terms? Great—if you’re a conglomerate. Brutal if you’re paying the pickers next week.
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Language that excludes drinkers. If customers need a glossary to enjoy a glass, we lost the plot.
Meanwhile, the growers and winemakers I know are basically tradies with tractors: practical, direct, allergic to fluff. They judge a wine by whether it’s fresh, balanced, and worth another glass—not by whether it smells like the ghost of a chrysanthemum.
What we’re doing about it (and why the name change)
After 25 years mucking around with vines and barrels, I’ve realised the only way to stand out in a saturated market is to be painfully, transparently us. So: DAVE’S Wine Revival. Put a face on it. Make it personal. If it’s great, I’ll pour it and sell it. If it’s not, it doesn’t touch the shelf.
Our mission is simple: bring small producers’ wine straight to people without screwing the producer. Fewer hands taking a share. Fair pay. Clear story.
How we’re doing it:
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Direct sourcing. We buy from independent growers/makers, not warehouse rumours.
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Fair pricing. Set prices that keep you smiling and keep the growers in business.
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Real talk. No flowery tasting notes. If it suits your taste, lifestyle and budget—drink it and buy it again.
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Seasonal drops & small runs. Better cashflow for makers; fresher drinking for you.
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Short routes to your glass. Online, in-venue, carpark sales, pop-ups—no ‘business development’ or salesmen. The people who make wine, selling wine. Isn’t that who you’d want to buy from anyway?
Why your glass matters more than you think
Every time you buy a bottle direct from a small producer—or from us when we’ve sourced it fairly—you’re doing three things:
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Paying the people who did the work. Less leakage to “programs,” more money for growers and cellars.
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Keeping diversity alive. Big companies optimise SKUs. Small producers chase flavour, site and sanity.
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Voting for better wine stories. Real vineyards, real headaches, real near-death incidents (more on that next week, actually).
Image above - The Pet Nat at bottling phase. No filter needed! Much more transparent now although sediment is natural for wines made with this technique.
“Okay Dave, so what should I do?”
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Buy independent. If you can buy straight from the maker, do it. If not, buy from us—we’ll do the fair-deal bit for you.
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Ask one question at a time: Who grew it? Who made it? Where did it come from? If you ask the seller those questions and get fuzzy answers, you’re probably dealing with a Vine Vampire.
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Share the finds. Bring a friend, forward a link, drag someone to a tasting. The algorithm you control is word-of-mouth.
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Tell me what you like. I’ll find more of it from the people who deserve your money.
About the “Dave” bit
The rebrand isn’t ego. It’s ownership. If I’m asking you to trust our taste and back our model, you should know who’s speaking. I’m not going to drown you in perfume-counter adjectives. I’m going to tell you where it’s grown, who grew it, and the sometimes unhinged things that happened to get it into bottle. Then I’ll pour you a glass and ask the only question that matters: Want another?
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for caring about wine made by people, not spreadsheets. Hug a winemaker (with consent). Better yet—buy their wine. If you need a place to start, start with DAVE’S Wine Revival. I am literally overstocked on heaps of delicious wine I’ve made. I’m not asking for a handout, just offering some cracking wines that you can pick up for peanuts. Pop in and have a taste!
To small producers, fewer middlemen, and fuller glasses. 🍷
P.S. Got a favourite little producer you think we should champion? Reply and tell me who they are and what they make. If it’s good and priced fairly, I’ll chase it down.
